For its part, the Senate became further entangled in partisan disputes on Monday.

Broader legislation to provide prescription drug coverage to retirees has been bottled up by partisan disputes in Congress.

That is only the start of the unresolved questions that may turn into partisan disputes.

But it is not clear that clean elections could be held in places with more rancorous partisan disputes over election rules and vote counting.

Now attention turns to the House, where the measure is tangled in unrelated partisan disputes.

It was one of the most brutally partisan and bitterly personal disputes in American history.

"It is a tragedy that this became a partisan dispute."

But the nominations could become ensnared in a partisan dispute in the Senate.

A partisan dispute broke into the open at the start of today's hearing.

Last week the Senate at least temporarily shelved the bill, which had become entangled by a number of other, partisan disputes.